This is Money has launched a 'money diaries' series to reveal the spending habits - along with financial goals and worries - of ordinary people aged 18-35.

We will look under the financial bonnet and analyse spending habits over the course of a typical month, followed by tips on what they can do to achieve a brighter financial future.

The series is written by Grace Gausden, who offers tips and general guidance to our readers that draw on the rest of the This is Money team's knowledge and experience. We will also speak to financial experts to ask their professional advice when we feel it is needed.

In the second of our series, we speak to a 24 year-old man from the South East, who is working as a workshop leader on a reasonable salary but hoping to save up for a deposit for his first house.

He reveals his fears about not being able to pay off his debts quick enough and how that will impact purchasing his first property with his wife.

This is Money Diaries: Our new series looks at how much those aged 18-35 spend each month and tips to help people achieve their goals

Age: 24

Location: South East

Occupation: Workshop leader in the armed forces

Salary: £43,400 per annum (paid on the 28th of each month, or the closest day to this if it falls on a weekend/bank holiday).

Take home pay: £2,300. £550 rent is taken directly from pay so is not included as separate bill

Outstanding debts/loans and what are they:

- Car hire purchase: £14,090 (£278 per month since April 2016)

- Personal loan: £10,470 (12.83 per cent APR, paying £218 per month)

- Furniture loan: £2,064 (0 per cent APR, paying £62 per month)

- Credit card: £2,516 (0 per cent APR until March 2020)

Bank balance before pay day: £1.39. I have little pots in my Monzo account for things such as gifts with no more than £60-100 in at any time. I find not having the money directly in my bank account helps curb spending.

Accounts:

- Lifetime Isa: £380 (pay in £40 a month)

- 3 per cent Savings account: £700 (pay in £200 a month)

- Emergency fund: £350

The 24 year old has access to the Forces Help to Buy scheme which he hopes will help him save

Financial goal short-term (what would you like to achieve in a year's time): My wife and I would like to purchase our first house. I am lucky enough to have access to the Forces Help to Buy scheme, enabling me to boost a deposit.

Our ideal house would be in the range of £200,000-£220,000. I can get £16,000 from this scheme which also helps to cover the legal fees, and I estimate I could contribute an extra £2,000 towards the deposit myself.

I initially wanted to pay off all my debt by the end of this year putting me into a better position before buying a house, however, due to a change in circumstances this is no longer going to be achievable.

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Financial goal long-term (what would you like to have achieved in 5-10 years): Once I have purchased a house, I aim to build up savings and grow my money in a stocks and shares Isa.

I would like to save up for any potential future children. I have a fairly good non-contributory average salary pension scheme so don't feel too much need to do anything extra.

Financial concern, what is the single biggest financial concern month-by-month: I am concerned about making over payments on outstanding debt.

EXPENSES

Car

£280

Phones

£100

Extra debt repayment

£311

Sky

£72

Car insurance

£70

House Insurance

£7

Gas & Electric

£76

Credit Card

£30

Sofology

£61

Spotify

£10

Lifetime ISA

£40

Tesco Delivery

£7

Cleaning

£30

Shopping

£350

Parking and lunch

£100

Pet insurance

£14

Savings

£200

Loan

£220

Petrol

£50

Cat Food

£95

Christmas

£20

I am always very conscious of the fact I have debt and really aim to become debt free and continue that way as it is tiring to constantly spend so much money on repaying debt and never feeling like it is going down.

I feel that I bring in a lot of money, however, come the end of the first week of the month it's like there is nothing left to go out for meals or do anything as a couple.

Summary: After looking through your monthly statements, it seems that you have a lot of outgoing monthly bills. This is on top of some debts that you are looking to pay back as quickly as possible.

I understand that you wish to buy your first property with your wife - and stop renting - which is a realistic goal and achievable if you make some changes will help you both reach that goal.

It is worth noting that some of your household bills seem quite high - £72 for Sky is a large amount that could almost definitely be reduced, leaving you with more money in your pocket each month. Your phone bill also seems high.

You also have a personal loan with 12.83 per cent APR - a considerably high amount - which is definitely worth paying off as soon as possible.

However, it seems you do not have many lavish spends and are working hard to pay off your outstanding payments.

Tips: Understandably, it is difficult to save for a property when there are outstanding debts and other monthly expenses but it is possible to make some changes and start saving for a house.

Using comparison sites and online switching services are one of the best ways to save money and find out where you could cut back your spending.

It can be difficult to save up for a property when you have outstanding debts and expenses

Sky

Your £72 a month Sky bill is made up of TV, which costs £30 including Netflix, and broadband which is £31 including line rental. The extra funds are made up of purchasing films from the Sky box office. Altogether, this comes to a massive £864 a year.

Sky has recently announced it is putting its prices up in April and so this amount will rise in the coming months.

There are much better deals you can get for television bundles, even with Sky, and so it is worth contacting them directly to try and negotiate a better offer.

Monthly breakdown

Money spent in current account in week one: £286.25

Week two: £10.85

Week three: £5.35

Week four: £0.87

If that is unsuccessful, it is worth using a comparison site to see what other providers offer the same product but at a cheaper price.

Many firms offer an introductory deal for new customers so you could take advantage of that.

For example, for both broadband and TV, Now TV offers customers 15 Sky channels for just £22.99 per month for the first 12 months. This comes with 11Mb speed and unlimited downloads - costing £275.88 just in total for the first year.

If you would like more channels, TalkTalk has a package that comes with 105 channels, including one for £29 a month for the first 12 months which equates to £348 over the year.

Compared to the £864 you are currently paying, you could be saving a massive £588.12 a year (if opting for the Now TV deal) which could be put towards your Lifetime Isa, doubling the payments that you are already currently making.

Lifetime Isa and Forces Help to Buy

You have opened a Lifetime Isa to contribute towards paying for your first house.

Luckily, you also have access to the Forces Help to Buy scheme which can be used alongside the Isa.

The Lifetime Isa is a government scheme which allows users to put in up to £4,000 each year until they're 50. The Government will add a 25 per cent bonus to your savings, up to a maximum of £1,000 per year.

You also have access to the Forces Help to Buy scheme which allows those eligible to borrow up to 50 per cent of their salary, interest free, to a maximum of £25,000, to buy their first home.

This can be used towards a deposit and other costs such as solicitor's and estate agent's fees.

At present, you're putting in £40 a month which equates to £480 a year. You will only be getting a return of £120 a year from the Government at the moment, totalling £600 a year towards a house.

To maximise the potential of the Isa – and to allow yourself to buy a house as quickly as possible – it could be worth upping these payments as much as you can.

You are looking to buy a property in the West Midlands where houses are cheaper than the South East where you currently reside.

Increase: Upping payments into a Lifetime Isa can help people buy their first property quicker

For a deposit of £22,000 which could potentially buy you a house of £220,000.

You have said you would be able to get £16,000 from the Forces Help to Buy scheme and you would be able to contribute an extra £2,000 towards the deposit yourself, giving you £18,000 towards a deposit already - leaving an extra £4,000 needed.

If you round up the £588.12 you could save from your Sky bill to £600, that leaves you with £3,400.

You also have £1,080 saved between your Lifetime Isa and three per cent savings account. This means you only have £2,320 to find for a deposit.

It would be beneficial to max out your Lifetime Isa, which is specifically for those buying their first property, as this will give you more return.

By diverting the £200 a month you are putting into your savings account into your Isa, you would be able to pay £240 a month into it.

Paying £240 a month for eight months will give you £1,920 and when the Government's 25 per cent is added, you will have £2,400 - enough to give you a deposit of £22,000.

If you opted for a mortgage with a 2.5 per cent interest rate over the course of 30 years, you will be paying £869 a month, which although is more than you are paying now, it should be achievable with your salary.

Credit card

At present you have £2,516 on your credit card which is 0 per cent APR until March 2020.

You are currently paying £30 a month off your credit card as well as making extra debt repayments of £311 a month - meaning you are paying a total of £341 a month - in order to try and clear this before next March.

Continuing at this rate will mean you can clear the debt within 8 months.

Leading up to next March, however, if you still have debt to be paid off, it would be advisable to shift your existing debt on to a 0 per cent balance transfer card.

This is to prevent paying a higher rate of interest on your card after the 0 per cent APR time frame passes.

In order to get the most from your balance transfer credit card, you should ensure that you are disciplined about paying off as much as you can afford each month - ideally more than the minimum payment.

Want to take part?

This is a very high rate and it could be advisable to up payments to this, if possible, to get yourself rid of it.

Personal loans cannot be moved to other loans but it is possible to take out a new loan with a much lower rate which you can then use to pay off the other loan.

At the moment, the M&S Bank is offering 2.8 per cent APR on a £10,000 loan.

Clyesdale are also offering 2.9 per cent on £10,000 whilst Santander are offering 3 per cent on the same amount.

The rate you receive will be dependent on your credit record.

Stocks and shares Isa

You have said that you are hoping to build up your savings and grow your money in a stocks and shares Isa after you have purchased a house.

When deciding which Isa to open, it is important to consider the different options and decide what would work best for you.

Mark Locke, director at the Lang Cat, said: 'There are dozens of Isa providers, so knowing how much help you need is a good way to narrow them down.

We divide providers into three camps: "Do It Yourself", "Do It With Me" and "Do It For Me".

'You also need to look at how much money you have to invest. Generally if your investment is £50,000 or more, you're almost certainly going to be better off with a fixed fee provider, like Interactive Investor.

'Those with smaller lump sums or monthly investments will be better going with a provider that charges a percentage fee.

'For someone starting a stocks and shares Isa with regular monthly investments and would appreciate some help and ideas, AJ Bell, Fidelity Personal Investing or Hargreaves Lansdown are all easy to use with lots of guidance and offer a wide range of investments.'

Insurance

You are currently paying £70 a month for car insurance which is quite a lot of money but this is likely due to the fact you are under 25 years old and premiums tend to be higher.

As soon as you turn 25, you should find that you can get cheaper car insurance. It will, again, be worth using a price comparison website to see if you can get a better deal.

Household bills

You are also paying £76 for your gas and electric bills. The energy price cap increase came into effect on April 1 and as you are currently with a Big Six supplier, your bills could be increasing by over 10 per cent.

Therefore, it is advisable to use a price comparison site or switching service to see what alternatives energy suppliers there are and investigate how much you could save by switching provider.

Your phone bill is also very high at £100 - although that does also include your wife's phone bill as well.

If you have finished paying off your contract, it would be worth seeing if you can cancel it and switch to a Sim-only plan which would be much cheaper.

iD mobile offers a Sim only deal for just £8 a month that comes with 4.5GB of data, 500 minutes and unlimited texts. If you were both able to switch to that, it would be £16 a month, equivalent to £192 a year – a saving of £1,008 a year.

It also seems quite expensive to spend £95 a month on cat food, even though you have two cats and say they eat a lot.

When next buying food for your pets, look to see if there is an alternative cat food you could try and cut down even further on your monthly spend - or bulk buy via a website such as Zooplus.

The above is not financial advice, but some tips for what our diary writer could do to achieve the goals mentioned.

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